


(When Broken People Meet) On the Road to Recovery

by celestialshimmer



Series: Tumblr Ficlets [9]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: AU (details explained inside), Grief, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mentions of character death (canonical and not), Universe Alteration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-24
Updated: 2014-05-24
Packaged: 2018-01-26 08:26:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1681532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celestialshimmer/pseuds/celestialshimmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on an anonymous prompt: Stisaac, go to the same support group AU. But I apparently fail at reading comprehension and only just now as I was cross-posting this from Tumblr realized that I'd misread Stisaac as Scisaac. I fail.</p><p>Oh well, as a Scisaac fic it's not half bad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(When Broken People Meet) On the Road to Recovery

**Author's Note:**

> UA (universe alteration) where pre-canon the Laheys moved from Beacon Hills to closer Camden’s military base and he didn’t die for a few years. So basically canon stuff is the same except without Isaac in the pack and Gerard was the one controlling the kanima the whole time, so different people died than the people who did in canon. Yeah. I planned a lot more of this AU than what actually appears in the fic, so I might someday have to come back and add more details.

"I don’t want to be here," Isaac said bluntly.

"Okay," the girl who appeared to be a receptionist said with a shrug as she continued to tap her pencil against the desk.

Isaac groaned. “Aren’t you supposed to say that means I can go or something? Won’t I like, bring down the mood of everyone else if I don’t want to be here?”

The girl laughed. “Hey, half of everyone here doesn’t want to come. They have to come because they need to be able to tell friends and family they’re doing something about their grief, or because their job is making them do something about their grief, or whatever. And most people go for support groups as the less painful option than grief counseling.”

Isaac wasn’t really sure if grief counseling would be worse than a support group. He’d only have to talk to one person, for one thing, instead of a big damn group. And he wouldn’t have to pretend to care about other people’s sob stories.

The girl was right. When he went in, at least eight of the eleven people had I DON’T WANT TO BE HERE plastered all over their faces, and the other three looked mostly bored. _Guess I’ll fit right in, at least._

An older woman walked in and there was something commanding and in charge about her. Isaac instantly knew that she was the professional counselor. _Aren’t we going to be a happy group._ The counselor didn’t look bored, exactly, but didn’t look like she had high hopes for major breakthroughs either.

About ten seconds before the meeting was supposed to begin, the door flew open again and a dark-haired guy hurried in. “Hi! Am I late? So sorry if I’ve held anything up,” he said with a bright smile on his face.

Isaac couldn’t help but stare. Was he in the right room?

To his dismay, Weirdly Happy Guy made a beeline straight for him. “Hey! Is someone sitting in this seat?”

Isaac could only shake his head slightly, because while he didn’t want to sit next to a ball of energy and excitement when they were at a fucking grief support group, what else could he say? Well, _fuck off_  was tempting…

"Great! I’m Scott. Scott McCall." Isaac stared at him and then turned away. _This isn’t circle time in kindergarten, dude. We’re not supposed to be making friends. Let me deal with my fucking issues without being bothered, okay?_

The commanding woman cleared her throat. “All right, everyone. Let’s begin. My name is Stacey.”

~~~

Isaac stormed towards the meeting room, dreading it even more than usual. He stopped just short of the door when Scott McCall was standing right in front of him, holding out a Starbucks cup with his trademark grin.

"Huh?" Isaac said, unable to form any other words. Well, in his mind he was forming the words _What the fuck?_ but they wouldn’t really help.

"HI! I figured maybe you would, I don’t know, want some coffee. So I got you some!" Scott beamed and tried to hand Isaac the cup.

Isaac narrowed his eyes. “Why?” he asked, his voice getting dangerously quiet. If McCall had got him coffee for the reason he was thinking…

"Uh, I kind of thought you’d want it. Today. It’s… it’s a hard day today, isn’t it?" Scott chewed on his lower lip.

Isaac’s hand spasmed at his side. He resisted the urge to grab the cup and empty it on McCall’s head. “How," he said with gritted teeth, "would you know that?”

"I… uh…" Scott rubbed the back of his neck. "That picture you dropped the other week," he admitted. "The one of… you by his gravestone. I saw… and well, I knew today couldn’t be easy."

While Isaac wanted to still be upset, his anger melted away without his bidding. Scott had seen Camden’s birthday… and knew he would need help. He opened his mouth to say something, but instead of ‘ _"hank you_ ” or something normal, what he said was “I don’t like Starbucks.”

Scott laughed slightly, just a little huff of laughter. “Try it.”

Isaac took a sip and looked at the cup in surprise. Wasn’t Starbucks supposed to be overpriced sugary crap? It was sugary, but actually kind of good.

 _Say something, you freak_. Again, instead of “thank you”, he said something else. “How did you know?” he asked softly.

Scott’s face seemed to crumple, but a moment later his smile was back, if smaller. “His birthday was two months ago,” he said softly. “My mom… she knew it would be tough. She sent this big care package. It helped. A lot.”

Scott turned away slightly. “Let’s go inside now,” he said, voice back to its normal happy pitch. Isaac thought he heard something strained in it, though.

"Why do you act so happy?" Isaac asked quietly. "How do you act so happy?"

Scott turned back, unabashed about the tears in his eyes. “It’s not acting. Not most of the time, at least.” He took a deep breath. “I remember I’m actually lucky. I… I’m not alone. Yeah, I lost my best friend, but I have my mom. I have other people who I love who are left. He… he died a hero. And he… I always tried to be happy for him. I was always able to be happy around him… When things were hard… god, it’s hard to explain. Really hard.”

Isaac didn’t understand, and yet he did. “My brother died in combat too,” he said softly.

Scott jerked his head. “Yeah… hard, isn’t it?”

Something about Scott’s tone of voice or the wounded-puppy-dog look in his eyes compelled Isaac. He took a step forward and enveloped the shorter boy in a tight hug. Scott froze, but a moment later was hugging back.

~~~

"Come on, Isaac!" Scott said, grabbing his hand

Isaac fidgeted. “I can just stay in the car, you know.”

"No way! My mom really wants to meet you," Scott pleaded. "And you said you wanted to meet her."

Isaac shrugged a little. “Yeah, I guess.”

"Isaac, what’s the matter?" Scott asked, turning around fully to see him.

"I just… Scott, you know I’ve never even had a relationship before, much less met the parents." Isaac spread his hands helplessly.

"She’ll love you, I promise! You’ll love her! You don’t have to be nervous, Isaac.” Scott took his hands in his own. “Trust me.”

Isaac ducked his head. “Well… I guess if you trusted me enough to tell me all about werewolves, I can probably trust you for this, huh?”

Scott laughed a little. “Hey, I’m not going to hold it over you and say you have to trust me or anything ridiculous. But it’s not a bad comparison. I told you because I knew our relationship could be so much closer if I’d opened up about all that. And our relationship can be closer now if you meet my mom.”

Isaac quirked an eyebrow. “Scott, I really don’t think the comparison works all the way. My point was that werewolves are a much bigger thing to open up about than this…” he paused. “Do you really think it matters that much for me to meet your mom?”

Scott chewed on his lower lip, reminding Isaac that they’d have to talk about that bad habit. Another time, though. “It matters to her. To us… maybe not as much. I would like it. But Isaac, if you’re really stressed, forget about it. I… I love you both and I’d love for you meet each other, but I understand.”

Isaac gasped quietly, his breath stolen away. “S-say that again,” he whispered, leaning forward.

A grin broke across Scott’s face. “I love you both. I love you,” he whispered in return.

Isaac reached out to brush Scott’s lips with his fingers. “Again,” he said, trying and failing to get his heart to slow to a normal speed.

"I - love - you. Love you. I, Scott McCall, love you, Isaac Lahey, one hundred percent. I love you. I - are you going to say it back?" Scott broke off.

Isaac chuckled slightly. “Nope,” he said quietly, leaning forward to capture Scott’s lips with his own.

After moment, he broke away with a louder laugh. “Okay, I love you. I really, really love you.” He paused. “And I’ll go meet your mom now.”

Scott leaned back. “Are you sure? One hundred percent sure? Because I really don’t want to seem like I just said I love you to manipulate you into doing it or anything, I don’t want you to do anything you’re not one hundred percent sure of, I-“

"Scott," Isaac interrupted. "Yeah, I’m sure. Just hold my hand?" he asked, feeling a little nervous for some reason.

Scott beamed. “Of course.” He took Isaac’s hand tightly in his, intertwining their fingers. Then he leaned over to pull him into a tight embrace. “Love you,” he whispered again, and then opened the car door.

About twenty seconds later, Isaac learned that Mrs. McCall gave just as warm hugs as her son did. He felt immediately at home, something incredibly foreign.

Scott nudged Isaac after a little while. “Look,” he said.

At first, Isaac thought he meant the framed picture of Scott and his best friend, and squeezed Scott’s hand a little tighter. Then he realized it hadn’t been sadness in Scott’s voice, but happiness.

Right beside it, there was a picture of Scott and Isaac. Scott turned to him with a beautiful grin on his face. “You know, I think Stiles would have been really happy to meet you. And really proud to have our picture there.”

Isaac felt his heart wrench, but not painfully. “Camden would’ve wanted to meet you,” he said quietly.

For the first time in the months since getting the horrible news, Isaac felt at peace. Not fully recovered, but definitely on the road to it.


End file.
